Last day in Costa Rica

Wow.. I am at the end of my journey.

I just looked back at my first posts and its crazy to think about how much time as passed, and how fast it has gone by.

I got back from my vacation today. We did three days in Jaco, three days in Santa Theresa/Malpais and 3 days in Montezuma. Yesterday in Montezuma we walked along the beach for (not kidding, I timed it..) 5 hours and 50 minutes before we stopped somewhere for happy hour. We met a family from New York at breakfast, a dad and his three sons. Two of them we my age, one as Lilly's age. We ended up running into them again on our walk along the beach, and just stayed with them the rest of the day. The dad was making me laugh so hard that my cheeks were aching; we had so much fun with them. Doug (the dad) was asking the bar tender what alcoholic drinks they make with metamucil, and lovingly referring to his wife of 33 years' boobs as "tennis balls at the end of tube socks." I almost died laughing all day. We went swimming the ocean, which was to be my last beach in Costa Rica, and then to their pool for drinks and appetizers. I put together some "sammiches" made of amazing white Costa Rican cheese and fresh Italian bread, then made some coctails. Because of this, I think Doug wanted me to marry one of his sons and told me that I am "a good homemaker". Food and booze really are the way to a man's heart. After that, we went to dinner then back to the pool for some solid Marco Polo. I then returned to my "nicer" hotel room (as you will recall from my last post, I switched hotels because I am snobby and wanted something nicer) to find 2 giant cockroaches in my bathroom. This was company to the orange and purple crab that stayed with me in the room the night before. At this point, I decided that I was finally ready to leave Costa Rica, and the bugs, behind.

So today we made the journey back to San Jose. We took a ferry and two shuttles, and finally arrived back at my tica house.

I never got to say goodbye to my roommate Ali, but she left me a super sweet card and aparently, she left all of her clothes here and donated them to the poor people of San Jose. She really was a blessing as a roommate and fun and kind. I got so lucky with my living situation here.

I am sad to go, but also excited. I am thinking back on my first day of school here, our first weekend trip (all of our weekend trips!), and of course, all of the amazing people I met. Victor, our group coordinator was so amazing to me. He was so generous and so loving and so much fun. Martin, as much as I complained about him, it was so good to have someone who had very close tot he same experience as I did- someone to commiserate when school got tough, or talk about our weekend trips with. Osito and Nicole, Greg, Zack, Nelly, Lindsay, Tyler and Alyssa.. and Lilly. All of these people became my friends and made my trip what it was. Most of them are back home now, back living real life, but damn, what an adventure.

I will miss my house here in Costa Rica... I will miss the crazy downtown San Jose and the beautiful green, hilly landscape.. I will miss palm trees and spurts of rain, I will miss my teachers and Veritas.. Most of all, I will miss Spanish. I have completely fallen in love with the language.. I love the way it sounds, the way the words describe things, the love and emotion in all of the sentences, the animation of conversations.. I will miss it so much. I think my biggest culture shock going home will be speaking in only English. Dont be surprised if I put a few Spanish words in my sentences, as I sometimes catch myself doing when I speak English - and actually visa versa with Spanish. It remains my first and greatest love. I am so greatful for the opportunity to come here and live in this house and attend such a great school, and learn so deeply the beautiful culture of Ticos. I have been so lucky to see so much of this country and it is SO beautiful.

I have also been so lucky because nothing bad has happened to me. I dont want to jinx myself, but I have been lucky to not have been robbed at all or even close to it. I am leaving with a few scrapes from my scooter adventures, and some sore ribs from my waterfall adventures, but everything else completely in tact, thus resulting in an absolutely wonderful time.

I am going to the airport at 4am, then flying to Miami, then Chicago where my daddy is going to pick me up and hopefully I will get to see my amazing girlfriends.

Thanks to everyone who has read my blog either faithfully or here and there and thanks for all the support you all have given me. I love that I stayed an extra week here and I am ready now to return home.

What an adventure. :) :) :) :) Chicago or bust.