life is beautiful
Wow, is all I have to say. The last little while has been so intense, I wish I could tell you every detail however I will do a quick run through of the happenings of my life. The last time I posted I was still in San Jose and I had only been here for like a day and a bit, and yes I was so lost with that first family my goodness. The second night went much smoother since Adam was there, and our project leader stayed in the house beside us so he translated some things for us. Wednesday mornning we got on a bus to arrive in San Marcos Tarrazu where I will be living for seven weeks. Diego met us there, he is a tour guide local who lives in San Marcos and he opened up his home for us all to stay in. Its really nice to have two locals with us. The bus ride was so beautiful seeing more mountains and bright colours, of course I fell asleep for a bit of it though. We arrived to a nice little home. Its basically like a cabin in the old campgrounds in clear lake if I could use something as an example. Its the kitchen when you walk in, to the left is the boys room, and then us three girls are together. Our beds are like the thin kind of lawn chair mats, and our sleeping bag, with a mosquito net as a canopy around us. Its nice and comfy, however tight in space, but we are getting used of it.
We have a school right across the street from us, so its always very loud. My first mornning I woke up to like the marching band apparently they start practising at seven am, I thought it was a storm and I jumped out of bed, that was the groups first witness of me being scared of storms ha ha. All the schools are preparing for Costa Ricans independence day which is in like a week, so they all have a performance at the ceremony. The town is really spirited about this occasion, I am really excited to be apart of it. Our first day here we spent meeting people, walking around, all that orientation kind of jazz. Thursday I spent sick, Im sure you can guess what I was sick with, the food hasnt been agreeing with me, my project leader had to spend lots of the day just hanging out with me at home, while the rest of the group went and did activities with the chillens, and you know fun stuff.
I must mention how beautiful it is here, there is mountains surrounding us. We have a coffee plantation just down the road. I love that the coffee and the fruit I have everyday is literally from a couple blocks away. As we walk we just grab fruit off of the trees, it is wonderful. The guys sometimes throw things to knock things down. Something else i noticed, everyone is so layed back. Everyone thought I was slow back in Canada, well here I am considered a very fast walker. I have also lost my sense of time, we will be told we are leaving and to be ready at seven thirty am, and then we dont leave until like nine, so i stopped wearing a watch, I am just going with the flow and I love it.
Friday... most intense day I have ever experienced. Honestly I dont even have words to explain how challenging that treck was but ill try to explain. We left the house at like eight thirty, and we were told we were going for a hike and to plant trees, I didnt know what was about to begin ha ha. As we walked we started hiking up one of the mountains here called trinity hill, it has a huge cross on the top of it to signify something really important but of course I forget what it was. Anyway it was a big deal to reach the top apparently. After 30 minutes I was like this is crazy, and eventually we arrived to help some local people plant trees. I was so exicted, I have always wanted to plant trees. So there was a 100 to do, so we all got busy working, I learned a lot about different soils and what not, and when we were finished, our group leaders were like lets have lunch on the top of the mountain, It looked a lot closer let me tell you.
So we set off on this journey of almost 3000 meters high, my lord. Good thing I invested in some good hiking shoes. The view was incredible, we stopped a lot to breathe, as we got higher the air got thinner and we were literally in the clouds. I found a good hiking stick that helped me out. I was at the end with Adam and Melanie, the rest were just givener up, the group got seperated very fast. They made it up way sooner than we did. There was moments where the three of us were like we are not making it, I give up. We were so mad because the rest of the group who made it up were yelling down at us, you can do it!! and we just wanted to have some orange drank! and some food. All of a sudden it was so cloudy we could hardly see anything, and we were losing our minds because the oxygen was different. We were so mad, we couldñt see anything and we were so exhausted, however it made for some funny bonding time. Jorge our PL was yelling at us, and we were trying to tell them we are not making it to the top, and they were like come on!! and then Jorge came down to meet us, and got us going again. When we finally made it we were so happy.
That view from the other side, being on top of a mountain was incredible, I will never forget the view or how I felt, such a high way better than any work out. I cant even explain this. We hung out for awhile, had some food, layed there, laughed so much, it was beautiful, and something I will always remember. The treck down was so intense, it started to rain, and the clouds got thicker we couldnt see much and we were sliding a lot. I was so scared, we kind of lost our path, but after 30 minutes we figured it out. We ended up amongst a bush of burnt down trees, more like a forest, def not the way we got there. Good thing diago figured it out, I was not liking the huge rocks, and trees that were breaking. I was so scared about not knowing where i was stepping with all of the snaked here that would probably kill you. When we started to actually see the ground and get out of the clouds I was so happy, another feeling that was unexplainable.
Today we are getting things finished, and going on a tour today. We will start normal work next week, teaching english, more planting of trees. Its looking good. I am sorry if I havent answered any messages or anything, I have been so busy. I will just focus on updating here when I can. Thinking of all of you, I am in the happiest place right now.
Lots of love,
We have a school right across the street from us, so its always very loud. My first mornning I woke up to like the marching band apparently they start practising at seven am, I thought it was a storm and I jumped out of bed, that was the groups first witness of me being scared of storms ha ha. All the schools are preparing for Costa Ricans independence day which is in like a week, so they all have a performance at the ceremony. The town is really spirited about this occasion, I am really excited to be apart of it. Our first day here we spent meeting people, walking around, all that orientation kind of jazz. Thursday I spent sick, Im sure you can guess what I was sick with, the food hasnt been agreeing with me, my project leader had to spend lots of the day just hanging out with me at home, while the rest of the group went and did activities with the chillens, and you know fun stuff.
I must mention how beautiful it is here, there is mountains surrounding us. We have a coffee plantation just down the road. I love that the coffee and the fruit I have everyday is literally from a couple blocks away. As we walk we just grab fruit off of the trees, it is wonderful. The guys sometimes throw things to knock things down. Something else i noticed, everyone is so layed back. Everyone thought I was slow back in Canada, well here I am considered a very fast walker. I have also lost my sense of time, we will be told we are leaving and to be ready at seven thirty am, and then we dont leave until like nine, so i stopped wearing a watch, I am just going with the flow and I love it.
Friday... most intense day I have ever experienced. Honestly I dont even have words to explain how challenging that treck was but ill try to explain. We left the house at like eight thirty, and we were told we were going for a hike and to plant trees, I didnt know what was about to begin ha ha. As we walked we started hiking up one of the mountains here called trinity hill, it has a huge cross on the top of it to signify something really important but of course I forget what it was. Anyway it was a big deal to reach the top apparently. After 30 minutes I was like this is crazy, and eventually we arrived to help some local people plant trees. I was so exicted, I have always wanted to plant trees. So there was a 100 to do, so we all got busy working, I learned a lot about different soils and what not, and when we were finished, our group leaders were like lets have lunch on the top of the mountain, It looked a lot closer let me tell you.
So we set off on this journey of almost 3000 meters high, my lord. Good thing I invested in some good hiking shoes. The view was incredible, we stopped a lot to breathe, as we got higher the air got thinner and we were literally in the clouds. I found a good hiking stick that helped me out. I was at the end with Adam and Melanie, the rest were just givener up, the group got seperated very fast. They made it up way sooner than we did. There was moments where the three of us were like we are not making it, I give up. We were so mad because the rest of the group who made it up were yelling down at us, you can do it!! and we just wanted to have some orange drank! and some food. All of a sudden it was so cloudy we could hardly see anything, and we were losing our minds because the oxygen was different. We were so mad, we couldñt see anything and we were so exhausted, however it made for some funny bonding time. Jorge our PL was yelling at us, and we were trying to tell them we are not making it to the top, and they were like come on!! and then Jorge came down to meet us, and got us going again. When we finally made it we were so happy.
That view from the other side, being on top of a mountain was incredible, I will never forget the view or how I felt, such a high way better than any work out. I cant even explain this. We hung out for awhile, had some food, layed there, laughed so much, it was beautiful, and something I will always remember. The treck down was so intense, it started to rain, and the clouds got thicker we couldnt see much and we were sliding a lot. I was so scared, we kind of lost our path, but after 30 minutes we figured it out. We ended up amongst a bush of burnt down trees, more like a forest, def not the way we got there. Good thing diago figured it out, I was not liking the huge rocks, and trees that were breaking. I was so scared about not knowing where i was stepping with all of the snaked here that would probably kill you. When we started to actually see the ground and get out of the clouds I was so happy, another feeling that was unexplainable.
Today we are getting things finished, and going on a tour today. We will start normal work next week, teaching english, more planting of trees. Its looking good. I am sorry if I havent answered any messages or anything, I have been so busy. I will just focus on updating here when I can. Thinking of all of you, I am in the happiest place right now.
Lots of love,
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