Jaco and the start of a new week...

So it's already Tuesday night, but still technically the beginning of a new week! My roommates and I went to Jaco this last weekend. It was very fun! (Pictures below). We took a long and windy busride through the mountains to get there, some of it in pitch black, on Friday night. Took longer than usual since there was an accident on the way out of San Jose. Which, if you saw these roads, you would realize how backed up traffic can get very quickly. We got there around 7:00, found our hostel, and headed off to get some dinner. 

Sidenote: For those of you that may not know what a hostel is, it is essentially a hotel with the absolute bare minimum of necesities. They usually have a bed with a sheet and pillow, shower, toilet, sink, and maybe a fan. Ours was $10/person/night and was actually very clean and well-run. There was a kitchen to make food, and a nice pool! We were also about half a block away from the beach. We will definitely be staying there at the Hotel de Haan again if we go back.

Back to Friday night--had dinner and went back to hostel to hang out and go to bed. Not too exciting, but we had all been up since 5:30. We did, however, eat at a restaurant where I was able to see some football and watch the Twin's game against Seattle! I was pretty excited.

Saturday morning, we got ourselves some breakfeast to fuel our surfing lessons. The guys who work at the hostel got us signed up and taught the class with a few other people. It was incredibely fun and certainly something I would want to do again given the opportunity! The water was so warm, and it was great to be in the ocean again! I was able to get up during the first half of the lesson, but then we stopped to rest and have a drink. The other people in our group were 7 guys down there for a long weekend for a bachelor party--rough, huh? That's a pretty amazing bach party! They were from New Orleans and were certainly there to party it up.  When I went out for the second go around, my arms were tired, and I had a drink in me--didn't go as well, but was still very fun :) I am still sore today--no wonder surfers all have amazing bodies! That is cardio and lifting all in one!

Afterwards we relaxed and watched the other surfers (the ones who actually know what they're doing) for awhile, we grabbed a bottle of wine (sans corkscrew--explained below), and went back to the hostel to hang out and get ready for the night. There were a group students from Germany and a  few from the States that are down here doing missionary/volunteer work for 6 months or a year. In Germany, apparently that is required after high school before you go to college. They all had various positions, but two of them got to work with the sea turtle rehabilitation in Toruguero on the Carribean side of Costa Rica--for a year!! How freakin' cool would that be? We played cards and hung out with them and left to go to the out as we were feeling a little old :) However, they ended up finding us out and we all had a lot of fun dancing and had a good time. They were very entertaining and certainly had us laughing all night.

Sunday I woke up without a voice (weird, right??), and not feeling great, but made it through. Hung out at the beach for a few hours while we waited for our bus, and headed back to Tres Rios!

Fast forward to today. I haven't gotten to do a ton at school yet. They are still dealing with grades and tests for the end of their 2nd trimester, but I was able to sit and talk with a group of like 7 girls in one of the 8th grade classes for awhile today. They had lots of questions for me--we practiced our 2nd languages and talked about the US, school, places to see in Costa Rica, Twilight, movies, etc. Very awesome to sit and talk with them :)

Did my second spin class tonight. It was great, and it feels good to workout. This time went much faster because I wasn't able to see a clock! Definitely something I will be doing a few times a week while I'm here.

I am exhausted, as usual, so I am heading off to bed. There are still a few of you I'm looking for on Skype, where are you?? :) I hope everyone is doing fabulous and life is good. Take care.

Getting ready for the busride to Jaco! We were lucky and got seats in the back with all kinds of leg room!

Yummy smoothy to get the day started before surfing!

I did it! My roommate Linsey has a picture of me actually up on the board...will post later!

Huge boards! Apparently they are easier for beginners, but wow were they hard to maneuver against the waves to get out to where we needed to be!

The kitchen at our hostel. We walked for 20 minutes in the downpour you can see in the background to get a wine opener for our wine--probably should of thought of that when we bought it and there were sunny skies!

Me and the roomies at The Monkey Bar.

Me and Meghan

Playing in the water and relaxing on the beach before our busride home!