I need to catch yall up on everything that’s gone on lately… blogging is hard.

So, as of today I’ve been in Costa Rica for an entire month, it does not seem like that is possible. Time has gone by so quickly it feels like I just got here. 

I know I didn’t update last week, it was because of a mixture of not wanting to/not having anything to really talk about. Each day last week had something going on, but not much to talk about for each day. So here it is, the account of my worst week here so far.

I’ll start with the weekend before last. I went to a tico party, it was awkward. The people were really nice, I just felt so out of place not being a fluent spanish speaker.

Sunday I got home, and I received a message saying that Brandon Taggart, who I went to high school with had passed away. Brandon was in a car accident in January and had been in a coma since. Even now, over a week later it doesn’t seem real. I really wish I could have been home to show my respect to the family and to give my condolences. It just reminds me that life is way too short, and has got me thinking on that for the past week.

Monday I got sick. I’m not sure why I was sick, but I had some kind of stomach bug that thankfully went away when I woke up tuesday, with a whole new set of aches.

Tuesday I didn’t feel like doing anything. Whether it be thinkinf of Brandon, culture shock setting in, the confusion from an old friend trying to reconnect, or a combination of all of these things, the stress took it’s toll. AS I was heading to my last class I started to have pain in my chest and arms, and was barely able to concentrate for the 2.5 hours that I was just sitting in the classroom. Never has stress manifested itself in me this way before, and I hope I am able to manage my stress better in the future so that I don’t have to deal with it again.

Wednesday was definitely a bad day. Cori’s mom and mom’s boyfriend came to town so we all decided to go to dinner at some restaurant at Paseo de las Flores(the mall here in Heredia). I left my house around 6:15 , got on the bus, walked to the school where I was going to take a taxi to the mall. On my way to the taxi a guy comes up and asks me for money, thinking he was just a beggar I said I didn’t have anything and walked on my way. There weren’t any taxis at the stop so I went a little further down the street to see if there was one there. The beggar man came up to me again telling me to give him money, where he proceeded to push me against a wall and he reached his hand into my back pocket to take out my wallet. I reached for it at the same time, I don’t know what he reached for at that moment, whether it was a knife, gun, or nothing, but I proceeded to give him the money I had in my wallet which was about 15,000 colones/about $30. After he took my money I proceeded to go to McDonalds and call Cori to see if they would come back into town for dinner instead of at the mall. The rest of the night went really well, despite being a little shaken up from the mugging.

Thursday was just a normal day, nothing really happened.

Friday I had a presentation in my contemporary spanish literature class. I hated every moment of it. I still feel as though my group feels as though I’m a burden upon them rather than a valuable member of the group.

Saturday we went to La Fortuna to visit a waterfall and hot springs of Volcan Arenal, it was a very relaxing day and a nice way to end the terrible week that I had.

Sunday and monday passed with little happenings. Monday I went to dinner with Lu, and got to meet her family, it was nice.

Tuesday Cori, Katie, and I went to lunch after class, then to get tea, then to get smoothies before I had to be responsible and go to class.

Apparently, the invention from the 1920’s that affected women’s life was sliced bread. The things you learn in Costa Rican culture class…

Today I’ve been doing nothing but catching up on a few TV shows from the states that I haven’t been watching.

I’m off to class now, the first Dialectology class I’ve had since syllabus day. Should be fun.

So things haven’t been super exciting lately and I didn’t want to bore you all with a post that simply said “I went to class” so instead I’m just writing one blog post for the past couple of days.

Wednesday was pretty boring. I did absolutely nothing during the day, then went to class which ended up being cancelled. So instead of going home 4 hours early, Cori, Katie, Kayla, and I went to a bar to hang out. It was fun, but we didn’t feel like staying out really late. At one point Lu showed up and she and I went to another bar that I’ve really come to like called Jagermeister. It’s a much more relaxed place, with chill music rather than super loud bass and super busy.

Thursday we had class as usual, and at night Cori, Katie and I tried to find a temporary Brickstreet by going to a karaoke bar. It was a very poor decision. The singers there were fantastic, but it was very creepy. Whether it be the stranger asking to take a picture of us, or a man blatantly telling us we needed to be careful at the bar, I don’t know. I just know we didn’t like it. At all.

Today was a pretty long day. We had to go to the bank to pay for our visas, and that took about an hour. The banks here are VERY secure. You go through a metal detector and get your bags checked by a guard who locks and unlocks the door every time someone comes in/leaves, you can’t use your cell phone while inside, and the tellers are behind bullet proof glass. The whole process took about an hour. Although they said they would accept a Visa credit card to pay, they didn’t which just complicated things because the teller kept my passport while I went to the ATM. Then I had to wait to get back in line… awful.

In our theatre class we were separated into groups, and this group experience was A LOT better than last week’s group experience. They were really nice and actually cared that I am trying to improve my spanish. Through this semester we are going to be writing a play to perform as our final exam, it should be fun.

In my lit class today we watched Pan’s Labyrinth, and discussed symbolism and how it portrayed the Spanish civil war.

Now home and have done nothing of any significance. But at least it’s the weekend now!