hola mi familia!!!!

Hi everyone!
A few matters of business... dad, what is up with your blog picture? LOL. And Terri'' i attempted to write u back on facebook but sometimes the computers won´t allow me to send comments-messages at random times.. but nope, i got back from the desserted island safe and sound!!

the island was amazing, it was so interesting because there are only 1000 people who live there. there is no public transportation to the island ,so me and 15 other students about from my latin american cultures class went along with our professor, alturo. we had to take a private fishing boat out to the island.

its a pretty poor, fishing community there and we stayed right on the beach, next to this large common area where a lot of the locals gather.

we went fishing with the local fisherman, which was really interesting to see, stopped at a random point to swim around in the water which was amazingly refreshing, and then went back to the island.

we all brought candy and gifts fo the little kids. they were so ecstatic to get candy.. im not sure if they have any on the island, since there isnt easy access to packaged indulgences with only small fishing boats goign back and forth to the guanacaste and puntarenas regions of costa rica.

some of the students played soccer with the locals there. soccer is HUGE here. everyone plays.. apparently not too many girls play though, like it is in the states. but more girls are beginning to pick it up. the soccer season for the costa rican national team is right now, they play the US in about a month, im looking forward to watching that one haha...

anyways, after giving candy to the kids i was wandering around the big common- meeting place for the locals and i came across another girl from my class playing with some of the kids. i started playing with them too... and boy were they wild. they were jumping off the porch of the patio in the common area onto the beach, a good 6 feet drop.. it was scary, i was telling them not too but one of their older sisters was nearby and the only one watching them and she was fine with it. i brought my camera out and so did the girl from my class and the kids went wild. i have a string of at least 40 pictures- videos that the kids all took themselves, LOL. they were so mesmerized by the cameras.. it was funny, i was doing funny poses for them as they snapped away.. as well as the other kids. one of the little boys kept saying he wanted to be a photographer someday, he was probably 3 or 4, but he took some miraculously good pictures of the ocean from the patio deck.

after the picture fest, the kids dragged me on their crazy adventures. they were climbing on top of this structure, and overturned boat, and then on a tree. they definitetly had a little ¨playground¨so to speak on the beach, since i dont think they have any sort of man made structure on the island to play on... a little girl convinced me to climb it with her, and i came down right away because it was too scary for me haha.

i was so caught up running around and playing hand games with the kids i didnt even go to dinner when the other students called me.. it was getting adrk, and i couldnt find my flip flops. i told this 15 year old boy that i couldnt find them and he graciously stayed out on the beach with me helping me look. we found them.. i told him i was going to eat dinner and asked what he was doing, if he already ate. when i got to dinner everyone was almost done eating.. and i realized i kind of half invited the guy to eat. i wasnt sure if there was enough food so i asked my teacher if there was enough to share and se said of course, just serve them a plate.. i ended up serving at least 12 people.. i was sitting at my own little end of the table with a bunch of locals and then i started scarfing the food because i was so hungry after playing with the kids for so long. the food was amazing, by far the best shrimp and fried fish of my life, probably because it was straight from the ocean

i didnt even go back to the room to shower, i ended up having a bunch of fun talking to the local people, it was interesting to hear their perspectives,or at least as much as i could learn with my limited spanish.. but i talked to them about living on the island.. i heard a lot of them never really leave, but surprisngly a lot of hte young ones said they were planning on leaving soon, had left in the past, and were goign to be enrolled at universities in costa rica. i dont know if i already mentioned it, but education is huge here. costa rica is actually one of the first countries.. actually i think it is the first country.. to have free and required public primary education.

the next day the highlight was going on a ltitle walk through the jungle.. the island was interesting because there were a lot of chickens running around o nthe beach, nonnative definitetly, and then a huge jungle behind the beach area with the chickens and roosters running around..

so we went on a little hike through the jungle, which was gorgeous

this weekend, im off to manuel antonio.. tomorrow morning, im leaving for manuel antonio.. its supposed to be one of the most gorgeous places on the pacific coast, its a national park with beautiful surrounding beaches. im excited because some other students were telling me they went on a tour with a guide through the forest, and saw a lot of monkeys and sloths.. we are def. going to do that there...

the beaches are really amazing here, because it is not only a gorgeous ocean, but there is lush rainforest surrounding it.... thats not how the beach is in puntarenas though, but i went to caldera yesterday after class which is right near puntarenas. the beach was stunning, and me and my firend lu from usac ended up meeting a surfing instructor.. he showed us how to surf, i never had much of a desire to try surfing but it was really fun.. i stood up 4 out of 5 times, only for a few seconds but i know just standing up is quite a feat'' i think the only reason i was able to was because the instructor pushed me out and told me the exact moment to stand. im assuming half the battle with surfing is paddling, catchign the wave, and figuring out the right moment to stand. i am definitetly interested in taking a lesson now, though

other than that, ive been working on my spanish everyday.. not sure if i mentioned them before, but my 2 middle aged woman friends who were at vendors on the paseo, ive been visitng them about every day still -- and i also helped out with an english class the other night, i met the teacher one random night when i was with my family on the beach. she was really nice, and ended up calling me the other night, asking if i could come help out. it was fun, bease there were set questions on the board like ¨when was your first date, how did it go¨and me and another girl from USAC rthat i know had to ask them in spanish and answer in spanish, whereas the english students did the opposite

its a bummer because school has really picked up.. the latin american cultures class is much more of a feat than i thought, since i overzealously decided to take it in spansih since thats the only one that will transfer to poly. i can catch on during class, because he speaks slow and sually in spanglish.. but i didnt realize that the class would also involved spanish written tests and 200 pages of spansih reading. eek. luckily my quiz was moved back a week, so i can have fun this weekend


im off to shower and sleep since im getting up at 6am tomorrow..but i hope you are all doing wonderful!!!


love, kelly