La playa de Jaco y el primero dia de Country Day School

Jaco Beach

Wow, what a crazy few days! This Saturday we ventured on our first weekend adventure, la playa de Jaco. First of all the most important thing you need to do when staying a long period of time in Costa Rica is find a wonderful taxi driver and never let him go. Lucky for us, Oky has a friend. (Well, she has many friends, as she has told us.) His name is Alfredo and he is as cute and sweet as his name sounds. He loves his granddaughter. He told us she was his heart. Anyways, Alfredo picked us up early Saturday morning and brought us to the bus station in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, about 10 minutes away. The bus stop in San Jose can be quite intimidating at first. With people coming and going, taxi drivers trying to make a little extra money, and lines winding in and out of the ticket booth, I was a little bit scared, but with my awesome new friends we all got tickets to board the bus for Jaco at 8. What an experience in itself. Just to let you know, I am a walking American billboard, if you don't remember my blonde hair and blue eyes. We are all distracting. 

Well, 2 hours and a nap later we arrived in Jaco. We quickly found the dark sand and high wave beach! It was beautiful. To our left we mountains. To our right were mountains and all around us was the thick, dark, volcanic sand. Erica and I went for a walk to the far right side of the beach where there were waves splashing up against the rocks like you see in the movies. We tried to walk and do the famous pose that Ariel does in The Little Mermaid, but it isn't as easy as you would think. We loved it all. That night we found a hostel, walked around the town and ate at a local restaurant. It was a beautiful day. God's power to create such beauty around us is just breathe taking. We have an awe-inspiring, all worthy creator. The next morning we went back on the beach for a few hours and met some locals and learned about the area for next time. Unfortunately, as we were getting on our bus 2 of my friends bags were stolen. Luckily, nothing too valuable was stolen, but it still was hurtful and exhausting. Not the way anyone would want to end their trip. We all got home safely that night with once again the help from our friend Alfredo picking us up at the buses. All and all it was a fantastic trip, minus, of course, our mishap in the end.

Eating in the open air.

Mi amiga erica.

On the beach! We are so "blanco".

Night life in Jaco. We look so beautiful, especially Kelly.

Outside our room at the hostel by the pool.

Our awkward "Christmas card" photo. Bye Bye Jaco.

Country Day School

Today was my first day as an intern. Crazy, crazy, crazy. The kids don't get there until tomorrow, so this was wonderful in that I really got to know my teacher and team. We went to grade level meetings that were spent discussing areas in which students need help and how those needs could be met. FANTASTIC! The principal is wonderful. He met with all of us and gave us advice about the area and them just encouraged us and laughed with us. I felt as comfortable as any intern can feel. The school is beautiful and I love it already!

CDS