I must first apologize for being the worst blog-update procrastinator that ever existed! I’m embarrassed at how long it has been since I posted anything! I know this may be hard to believe… but I have set a goal to write something on my blog every day until I leave (which is one week from Saturday!!!! Where does time go?!? I’m soooo looking forward to having some family and friend time in the U.S.A. for a few weeks!)
Although there is MUCH that I could write about, as it has been so long since I have written an update, I will tell you about some of the happenings from last week and my beach adventure this past weekend in Tamarindo. ☺
Last week was a great week! Wednesday was “culture-day” which included a cultural dance performance, cultural classes (I learned how to Salsa dance!), and food (Tamales. Definitely a Costa Rican dish. Apparently it is very typical around Christmas although my Tico family occasionally eats it. The outside part has a jelly, bland consistency. It is not really one of my favorites...).
Culture day was in celebration of the annexation of Guanacaste, otherwise known as Guanacaste Day. Guanacaste Day was this past Monday, which meant that we had a three-day weekend! Friday finally arrived and got off on a great start. Instead of having classes, the whole school went on a field trip (so essentially, it was a four day weekend!) to a wood factory (La Madera de Costa Rica). 
I thoroughly enjoyed our field trip! It started out with a guided tour of the factory. We saw everything from the storage of the wood, to the cutting, to the fine details, and finally to the creation of incredible wood products – such as bowls, jewelry, treasure chests, toys, house décor etc. The smell of the wood and sawdust brought me back to my childhood and made me miss my dad. It’s funny how sometimes a song, a food, a picture, or a smell can represent something in our lives like that. I vividly remembered so many moments with my dad, watching and helping (or hindering, haha) him in his workshop, craftfully constructing various creations. I’ll always love that smell because it reminds me of him.After the wood factory, the bus driver dropped my friends and I off at a random bus station where we caught a different bus that took us the five-and-a-half hour long journey to Tamarindo. It’s important for me to tell you what we were “expecting” this weekend to be like… We had heard that Tamarindo was a great beach in Guanacaste but that it was known for being a popular tourist location. This meant lots of crowds and “gringos” (white people), our logic: it’s a tourist location for a reason – people must love it! We found a hotel online that looked wonderful! Online there were pictures of hotel rooms that looked like those that one would find in the U.S. – complete with towels shaped like swans laying on the beds. The website said that it included a fully equipped kitchen, therapeutic mattresses, Internet, and it even had lots of customer ratings and comments saying that they loved it! We booked our room ahead of time and told the owner that we needed a room for eight – which he agreed to. Well we finally arrived around 9:00. The town was almost deserted – so much for a crowed tourist location. We traveled the dirt road and finally arrived at our… hostel? We walked through the gate to find the 20ish year old owner partying with his guests. We were offered alcohol, pot, and some unknown meat – is this the right place??? Apparently. The owner, Christian, a former resident of L.A., CA informed us that our room could only accommodate six, but that he would bring us an extra bed. The extra person in our group would have to stay in a different room with two men! We told him that this plan was not going to work for us, and convinced him to squeeze two extra beds into our room. Well, we were quickly discovering that our three-day get away was nothing like we had expected! Hello false advertising! The “fully equipped kitchen” was equipped with a trashcan overflowing with the trash from the previous occupants. To add to the experience, the power in the entire town went out about an hour after we got settled into our room! We kept the door shut and locked during the night and there were no windows. Eight people sleeping in a crowed room with no ventilation or air-condition resulted in the hottest night of my life! I was dripping in sweat. It literally felt like we were sleeping in a sauna! Finally, sometime early in the morning the power kicked back on and so did our air-conditioning.
Although the weekend was nothing like we expected, it was still wonderful! In fact, out adopted motto for the weekend was: “It’s totally worth it!!!”. Sometime after arriving, we told ourselves: Ok, this is not what we were expecting, but this will definitely be an experience that we will remember forever! So let’s choose to make the best of this! – And we did! It was so much fun, and really was worth it! Saturday morning we woke-up and enjoyed an almost deserted beach all to ourselves! It was breathtakingly beautiful! There were mountains and jungles in the background and the water was cool and refreshing. For dinner we purchased the ingredients to make chicken tacos and guacamole. We made the most out of our little kitchen area by borrowing cooking utensils from Christian. We had a lot of fun working together cooking the meal. After dinner we played games together until we finally called it a night. Sunday was another great day. We started it out by having our own worship service together, and then spending the afternoon on the beach again. We headed back to San José very early Monday morning (5:30a.m.). On the way, our bus blew a tire, causing us to stop to replace it. But even this was worth it as we were able to get back around lunch and I enjoyed the rest of the day hanging out with my Tico family and preparing for the start of the week.
Overall it was a great weekend! There were many surprises along the way (including a clogged toilet one night, and having to pull the built-up hair out of the shower drain from past occupants to get it to drain!) but the Lord turned the experience into a blessing and something that I’ll never forget! It was great to get away from the normal routine of life for a few days and enjoy his creation in fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ. It was totally worth it!! ☺
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