and we're back

well that went quick. we came, we lived and we left in only four weeks. jayne and i were talking on the plane and decided that it all kind of seemed like a dream. it wasn't real life... but it was. and it was awesome.
so after an extremely long journey home... we've finally made it. more than 24 hours of travel, 4 different airports, and 4 different planes (even though it was only supposed to be 3... long story... about 2.5 hours longer than it should've been). but we made it and we're happy and life is good.
what an experience.

el aeropuerto de san jose

in the airplane... well one of them... in miami

dallas airport

and finally home.

el ultimo sábado... falta un día

well today was basically our last day here. crazy. tomorrow we're going to wake up and go to sacrament meeting at the church down the street from our house, then come home, grab our bags, get in a taxi and head for the airport. crazy.
so today we told our mama tica that we wanted to wander around the market of guadalupe (guadalupe is the part of san jose that we live in), so she told us to wait because her friend was coming to get her so they could run errands so they would just drop us off. so we just hung out all morning and then around eleven we headed for the market. which was kind of hilarious, so we ended up just walking around town instead. we found a pretty cool fruit and veggie market though. that was funny. then we decided to head back into san pedro... since we knew we could find our way around there easy enough. so after wandering around guadalupe for a while... and sort of getting lost... we decided to follow headphones guy cause he looked like he knew where he was going. and he did! we made it to the university and knew where we were from there. so thank you headphones guy... you helped us get un-lost.
i really wanted some more pics of graffiti so we followed the train tracks through town and found a lot. i brought my sharpie along too... cause we wanted to leave a little something here :)
so basically, today, we wandered... again. it was fun though and we ate some delicious crepes for lunch, then bought a card and cake for our mama tica. ha ha she almost started crying when she came home and saw it. she saw our packed bags too and wasn't too thrilled about that. ha ha but we may come back someday!

el ultimo viernes... y fue el 13

today was friday the 13th. and it was our last friday here. awesome. today we went to school, took our last tests, did our presentations at graduation, and we were done. we didn't know what to do. the plan was to eat lunch, then find a bus that would take us to some gardens that we could hike around. plan failed. we learned that the gardens were more like flower beds that you can't hike. sad day. but oh well... we went to the mall instead and got a pedicure. awesome. then went to mcdonalds for an ice cream. you can get a big'ol cone for only 300 colones... about 60 cents. and it was delicious. we went and sat in the park while we ate it and saw the most adorable little boy ever. people watching is great fun. then we meandered around town until we found our way home.

la clase de jayne

la clase de mi

el outlet mall

post office

funny little pathway to school to cut across the field

yes... even the pedicure places in costa rica are chinese

el ultimo jueves

and today was our last thursday. wow this week has just flown by. actually, this month has kind of flown by. we're going to be home on monday! that's crazy cool.
well today we decided to try to find this market our mama tica and mi profe told me about. el mercado se llama la sabana. so i had a general idea of what direction we needed to head. and so we walked. and walked. and walked some more. we found a pretty cool cemetery and started playing a fun game of 'whocansticktheumbrellaonthebackpackwithoutgettingcaught.' yea, fun. well we did eventually find the market, but guess what? it was closed ha ha. esta bien. we had a good time and found a cute little park on our way back. and then we walked home. the clouds looked a bit lugubrious, but we decided we could make it anyways. boy were we wrong. we got home and looked like we had gotten in the shower in our clothes, but no worries. our mama tica was watching her novelas and didn't even see us. we hurried and showered and pretended like we had been home for hours ha ha yes.

this is el jueco that i fell in... it kind of ate my leg. and i got a few nasty bruises and scrapes. sad day.

el ultimo miércoles

you may think that I'm counting down the days til we come home... but it's not really like that. i love it here (for sure not as much as i loved mexico, but still it's been great). we are down to the last few days though, so i can't help but countdown. and besides... i do miss home, and i'm super excited to just hang out with the fam again.

today was fun. after class we ate a monster pizza (that's literally what it was called... because it was monster sized), then went to the mall to see a movie. El Hombre-Araña. fue muy bien.

el ultimo martes

well today was our last tuesday here in the land of rich coasts. again... it was pretty uneventful. for lunch we went to la canela for a delicious ham and cheese pastry thing, then to am/pm for th famous yogurt con chocolate pebbles. yum. really... we're going to miss this yogurt. muy rico.
oh and it was actually kind of chilly today. and it rained. and so... we got chocolate caliente. con canela.  yum.

oh and cortney... here's that picture you've been wanting! kinda terrible of me, but she said that she looked great and wanted a picture so we got one. ha ha ha

el ultimo lunes

well today was our last monday in costa rica. kind of sad. today after class, we went and ate at our new favorite restaurant. kinda like a classy jamba juice cause they serve super delicious sandwiches with the smoothies. then we went to the market again to buy a few more things to make sure we have something for everyone back home. then we went back to the school to get the new girl (our neighbor down the street is hosting a student at her house so we're showing the girl around) and do some homework. then we walked home, ate dinner and are just chillin. pretty relaxed day.

oh and i thought i should share this adorable video... kids are the cutest.

weekend in the jungle

so this weekend was quite the adventure. we left friday after school on a big green bus and five and a half hours later we made it to our jungle resort. the area we stayed in is called Rincon de la Viaje and we stayed at a place called Buena Vista. it was awesome. friday, since we got there so late, we split up into rooms, dropped of our stuff and went out to the buffet dinner. it was actually pretty good food too. after dinner we went to the sunset bar for some dancing, but were really tired after traveling so far, so we only made it til 10:00 before we headed back to our room for bed.

saturday was when the real adventures began. we woke up around 6:30, went to breakfast, changed into our suits and got on the horses. we rode them for a bit through some jungleishnis, up and down some hills and finally we made it to the natural spring pools. there we got to sit in a sauna, take a mud bath and have our choice of temperature in five different pools ranging form 75-106 degrees. about an hour or so later, we dried off, got on in a big tractor and headed for the water slide. we had to wear these goofy diaper things, grab a tube and helmet and hike to the top. it was a blast. so we did that a few times, then when we got hungry we headed off for lunch. seriously, we ate so much on this trip.
after lunch we changed into non-wet clothes and headed off to the canopy house to grab our gear. we hiked up to the top of a hill where we got our training and then headed down the mountain on eight different canopies! so cool! we also stopped in the middle to do an awesome rope swing thing. really fun. then we came back, watched the sun set at the sunset bar, showered, ate dinner, went dancing again, and learned how to use a coffee machine. long and fun day.

 then this morning, we woke up bright and early again, headed off for breakfast then grabbed our cameras and went on a jungle hike on this awesome bridge in the trees. it was neat to hear all the howler monkeys even though we never saw one. there were some pretty crazy sounding bugs too making a high-pitched clicky-chirpy sound. then we just hung out on these funny, very uncomfortable benches outside our cabin waiting for the bus to leave.
oh and jayne was in the jungle. she climbed a tree. but didn't find tarzan.

doesn't this look like that bug on bug's life??