Arenal/Pital

I have to give a big shoutout to my parents for the last two weekends. It was nice to get out of the city and see the real beautiful part of Costa Rica. It was also nice to sip drinks poolside and eat great food for the past two weekends.

We also got a chance to go out to Pital again and see some old friends at the church we work with. All in all, it was a great experience and I my parents got to see where and what me and Amanda are doing.

Jaco round 3

I went to Jaco for the third time this weekend, but it had a little different feel this time around. The family and I roughed it for two nights at the Los Suenos Hotel Resort(The top resort in Costa Rica). It was pretty amazing and a little different from the Hostel Amanda and I stayed at last month(Although the Hostel was a lot of fun as well). Dad and I got two rounds of golf in at one of the most beautiful courses (located right next to the hotel) I have ever played at, although we didn't get to see the famous wildlife that was advertised. Amanda and mom even joined us for the first round, although Amandacita just putted.

I even got to practice a little Spanish which I didn't think was going to happen. Although I should be much better after four months all the employees at the hotel thought I was pretty good mainly because all the other gringo tourists didn't speak a word of Spanish. I bugged Amanda with question after question as well because she never corrects me when I make mistakes :).

I got back today and moved into the apartment in Curridabat. It feels good to be a little closer to the city. Amanda, mom and dad flew to Nicaragua and will be staying there for the week. Next weekend should be a good one as well when mom, dad and I head to Pital.

I'm moving... again

I am moving once again. It will be my third apartment in four months, but this one is pretty baller, so don't hate. Four Bedrooms, three bathrooms, laundry, high speed internet and cable. I didn't think it would be possible here, but it is pretty sweet. And for only 250 dollars it month it was a steal. I will be living with three English teachers and a Costa Rican social worker. They are all really nice and graduated from college in 07, so I think it will go well.

Ciudad Colon was great for a few months, but it was just insanely far from the city and all my classes. I will definately miss living out in the cow pastures of Ciudad Colon, but the location of the new apartment is great. It is far enough outside the city where you don't get that nasty and dirty feeling when you are walking, but close enough (15 minutes) where you don't have to plan your whole day according to bus rides.

On a side note, Costa Rica celebrated it's Independence Day a few days. I thought it would be a crazy all day long party since the people here are very patriotic and proud, but suprisingly it was pretty short and consisted of kids banging on drums and dancing for a few hours. Maybe it wasn't so crazy because they spread out the parades in a bunch of different cities, but I was expecting a lot more.

We are having another family reunion this weekend, so I can't wait for that. My mom, dad and sister are coming. Can't wait to see you guys.

Graduations

I graduated my first two classes on Wednesday and Thursday last week so I am pretty excited. We met twice a week for two and a half hours, so we got to know each other pretty well and I was glad to see all the improvement they made. Although they were already both advanced classes, I saw improvement in all areas: writing, speaking, comprehension, grammar and vocabulary. It was also an experience for me doing something that I had never done before. I got a lot of valuable experience that you can not get by reading any books and I think I am very prepared for future classes.
At first I didn't think I was ready to teach three classes at a time, but I think I will pick up even more classes over the following months.