World Cup Games, Mini SPIA Reunion, and English TV

First and foremost, Costa Rica won the game on Friday, and what a game it was! So much pride for a country that I love so dearly!

Secondly, Danielle came to visit this past weekend! It was so nice to have a piece of home here. I showed her around my town, my internship, introduced her to my friends, and we ventured to La Fortuna to see Volcan Arenal and take the most amazing hike up the volcano to a lake in a crater! It truly was a wonderful visit.

Now onto work: Work has been only slightly different now that Tina is back, although no less challenging I must say! The only thing that has really changed in my role is I no longer have to answer the phone as much and all of our emails are getting replied to in the afternoons instead of just the mornings. I am not upset about the phone situation, no sir! Although I still answer it about half the time still, it’s really great practice not only for business skills, but also for my Spanish skills, which continue to improve each day.  

The Hostel in La Fortuna

Living with my host family, where no English is spoken (with the exception of helping my little nine year old sister study for her English exams), is also instrumental in my language improvement. It is really nice to have them, I am so glad I opted to live with a family and not alone in an apartment. Not only do I get immersed in the town at work, but also when I go home as well. It is so very interesting to get viewpoints about Su Espacio from the families participating in hosting, as I am still in charge of delivering their money when they have a volunteer coming to stay with them. I have the awesome opportunity to sit down with each and

At the Bus Stop

every one of them and see how they are doing, how they like hosting, and how they see Su Espacio.

We have begun to prep for our two-week free English lessons that will be happening in the first two weeks of July. This is school vacation from the schools and so we at Su Espacio rent out three large classrooms located next to the church and host free English lessons. We have three groups, mostly based on age, and people have already started calling in to sign up! We are hoping to fill each of the rooms; we have eight new volunteers coming in this weekend to help so there will be plenty of teachers there! These eight are all fairly young, in between 15 and 18 years old, and since Andres is still out sick, I get his job of taking them under my wing and showing them the ropes. This consists of not only orientation, but also taking them on an “adventure tour” next week. This means that every day next week I will be in a different city with them, showing them around. Luckily I have been to most of the places I have to take them, and the places I haven’t I’ve had to research so I can answer any questions they might have. I am looking

Volcan Arenal

forward to being out of the office for the week, but not so much because I fear it might turn into a babysitting mission. Hopefully it won’t.

This internship couldn’t have fallen on a better time for me to really take on the responsibilities I was looking for coming here for the summer. I had my doubts in the beginning, because I knew that most of the roles were already covered and I really did not want to simply be stuck teaching English classes instead of helping to run the organization, but it has certainly lived up to the expectations I tried not to set. Since Andres is out it is just Tina and me running things, so I have literally been thrown into the leadership role I was searching for. It is a ton of work, and I am in bed earlier than my grandmother is, but it is worth it. The challenge I am facing now is keeping my volunteers busy and productive during the day. Since school has picked back up we are finding more people are opting out of English classes, however, we are hoping that after this two-week class series interest will peak again and we will be full for the rest of the summer!

At Baldi Hot Springs

Overall, everything is still going smoothly and I continue to learn new things about the organization, the country, and myself. I never know what sort of challenges I face when I walk to work each morning and am excited to see what the day brings. Weekends are too short, but the seem to recharge my batteries so I can’t complain that much, especially when I get visitors from back home, can’t get much better than that!

So last weekend Danielle came to visit! For those of you who don’t know, Danielle is in

SPIA with me, but on the environmental track. She arrived last Thursday and stayed through until Tuesday. Manfred and I went to pick her up at the bus stop in town and before we arrived we decided to play a little trick, harmless really, how could we resist when it was right there?! Manfred pretended to speak no English, when in reality he barely has an accent when he speaks English. I had to stop by a few host family’s homes, so on the way I was talking with Danielle in English, “Translating” to Manfred, and then talking to him in Spanish. She was convinced! I expected to keep it up for a few minutes, but he continued for about fifteen, until I headed into a host home and he was out on the street with her, where he cracked and began speaking English. It was quite funny.

We played Jenga that Danielle had brought with Johanna and ate pineapple pizza and headed to bed early, we were heading to La Fortuna early the next morning. It was raining the who way there and continued to do so when we got there. We wanted to take an “adventure tour,” but after we talked to the woman at the front desk of our hostel we decided to go to Baldi Hot Springs instead. It was a solid

Hiking with Danielle and Sophie

choice! It was a little overpriced, but the water was so warm and it was sprinkling for the rest of the evening so it was nice to just sit in the warm water and relax. It was set up in 27 pools, the hottest pools were at the top and the “coolest” were at the bottom. Right in the middle there were water slides which of course we took advantage of. After spending a fair few hours in the hot springs we headed to dinner, which was an amazing buffet. We “carb loaded,” or that’s the excuse we used to eat as much pasta and dessert as we could fit, and then headed back to relax for the rest of the evening. We met this really nice girl from England who was in our hostel room named Sophie and invited her to go hiking with us the next day. She was planning n heading to Nicaragua, but decided to come hiking with us instead.

 

Climbing Down to the Lake

We started our hike at 9 the next morning and let me tell you, it was the most difficult, strenuous, hot, sweaty, exhausting, yet beautiful and satisfying hike I have ever been on. The trek was so difficult, nearly all vertical and so muddy, and through the rainforest. I do have to say, though, that the hike was gorgeous. Photos don’t do it any justice. It was straight out of Jurassic Park, with the leaves dripping water, hanging low, moss everywhere, birds and insects were the only sounds around, just absolutely stunning. So We hiked straight up for about two and a half hours, I don’t think I’ve ever sweat so much, and then had to hike down an even steeper trail for about a hundred meters to the lake. Unfortunately, it is the rainy season and so the lake was covered in fog, but it was still a nice place to relax and recover for the trek back.

Baldi Hot Springs

We ran into this nice family from Florida on the way up and spent a bit of time with them at the lake. The mom wouldn’t stop complaining, though, so we headed back. After that we were absolutely dead and spent the rest of the afternoon in the hammocks!

Sophie headed out early the next day and Danielle and I spent the morning shopping and relaxing and then bussed it back into town. We finally made it, after a brief spell of being lost in a horrible part of San Jose, at night of course, around 11 o’clock and crashed. The next day it was back to the grind for me. Monday brings orientation so Danielle came on tour with us and then out to the coffee farm where I was dropping off a few volunteers. She stayed for the tour and then spent the afternoon in the Internet café while I worked. It was a super long day, carting around new volunteers to their projects, delivering money to host families, holding down the fort at Su Espacio, playing host to a guy from the IFRE office in Texas, running to and from home for food, the whole nine yards. I was exhausted by the time I went to get Danielle so we just headed home and hung out until bed. We were up at 5 to get her

Sights on the Hike

in a taxi and then I went running. It is so lovely and cool here in the morning, and so many people wake up early to see it I really enjoy it. Usually, though, I am way too tired to get up that early!

So it was a pretty typical week, lots of work, hardly any play because I’m too tired by the time work gets out at 7, but it went quickly and here I am, Friday evening, after a full day of relaxation at home. I had the house to myself today so I slept in, and then watched Costa Rica win against Italy in the World Cup game. I was reading outside when it clouded over and began to storm like no other. It’s the rainy season and we are in the midst of it now so the storms come fast and they are ferocious! The clouds before they move in, though, are absolutely stunning. I wanted to stay out on my front stoop to watch it, but had to move into the doorway becaseu the wind was blowing the huge drops my way! I watched the storm play out and then moved inside for a bit. Well, longer than a bit, it’s around 8:30 now and I’m in the same spot. I am thinking I might just head to bed, although I’d like to wait for the fam bam to get back from San Jose before I do. I do have an early morning tomorrow so

I guess I’ll see if I start falling asleep on the couch or not. Anyways, I am headed to Playa Jaco tomorrow for the day with two other volunteers so that should be fun! We will see if we get to and from there without getting lost. Highly unlikely, but possible.

Bud, this is for you: What Would You Do? Is on TV as I am writing this! Of course I am watching it, I think I always will whenever I come across it on TV (when I have a TV that is)! I found it in my search to find a channel in English. I do love watching Latin TV, but once in a while I just want to zone out and I only can when I am watching an English channel because I don’t have to constantly be translating in my head! EVEN THE COMMERICALS ARE IN ENGLISH WOO! There is a surprising amount on tonight; I have already found around six, which is five more than usual. 

Today, my life is just Shelby.