Hostel Toruma San Jose

Okay, so now I don't think I was staying in the slums of Santa Cruz my first night here. I think that is what most of the country is like. I have now driven through this country for several hours and every house has either a fence, bars over their doors and windows or both. They even have this in little country towns which is so unusual. We don’t see that in the states unless it is the slums of a city. One other unique thing ...

... We stood under the covered porch and she did a little rain dance. LOVED IT! LOVED HER!

Catalina asked me if I wanted her to wash my clothes today. (No one has asked me that since I was nine.) Ummm…so okay. I have enough clean clothes (and especially underwear) to last until I leave. My only dilemma is the absolute clean clothes freak in me really wanted to have the clothes washed today. I declined though. I am ...

... of them so she downloaded them so she can catch up and watch with the other girl and I next year (we're all in the same dorm/program). I enjoyed rewatching the first season and I forgot a lot of what had happened. We went out for pizza that night and then to a bar called Bambu Jam - it had live music and looked like a huge tiki hut inside. It was fun to listen to the music - they even played the Titanic theme song in Spanish - that was funny. When we ...

... and we had a nice conversation. My Tica sister says my Spanish is fairly fluent but I laughed because I know it isn’t. It is more fluent than my housemate’s and I’m trying to practice and study it but I still have problems. After breakfast I worked on my essay because we always have essays and I was able to relax for the day without anyone in my class, which was nice. After being with everyone for 4 weeks straight, it was nice to get away from ...

... and the Nicoya Peninsula. Virgen de Los Angeles is a national holiday celebrating the patron saint of Costa Rica, La Negrita. It is celebrated on August 2nd with religious pilgramages from all parts of the country, and even as far as from neighboring countries Panama and Nicaragua, to the Nuestra ...

... to make the decision to come home.... I had 2 weeks to get my act together, pack, and move on. After 2 years in Costa Rica and 2 professions later I had certainly accumulated a lot of stuff. Rather than throwing it all away I tried setting up a yard sale. Yard sales in Costa Rica are not so common but I had a few dedicated clients who came back even days after I had closed up shop to settle debts and to see if I had anything else. The biggest hit were ...

... stock up on the bits n pieces that i need to replace or now realise i need...so i went shopping...literally walking from one end of town to the other (and a 3rd end too, right to the outskirts, after taking a wrong turn right at the start).

1) Memory Stick - 4 gigs for 11 quid. Fair enough.
2) Alarm Clock - a fiver! Thought it would be cheaper...
3) Shoes - Lots to choose from, nothing except boots in a 12 though, and im not ...

... she's happy). We sometimes have to order 'café negro', or black coffee. Also, we had seen a full color, freely distributed, cartoon-stylized map of the Arenal/La Fortuna area. We wanted one to show our visitors; and another two for our kids. So, strolling into tour offices, a couple of bookstores, and restaurants, we asked if any were available. At one small kiosk we were offered a free map - for $3! At one of the offices a fellow customer (in ...

... at the top of my page currently that asks if i want to "weave photos into my entry", i think this is the button i should press. I think. Ok so update: hmmm, Still can not speak spanish, although i have to admit i do enjoy bringing some humour to the days of the poor locals trying to work out what im saying. and i am getting better. the funny thing is that as i get better at spanish i seem to be getting worse at english! i now structure my ...

... jeg har boet i min kuffert siden jeg kom. Af flere grunde ville jeg gerne flytte ind i en af skolens lejligheder i stedet og det fik jeg lov til i går! Så nu er jeg kommet op i den bedste lejlighed på hele skolen. Der er en dejlig stor terrasse med en skøn udsigt så det elsker jeg. Nu bor jeg med en pige fra Norge og en fra Tyskland. De virker til at være søde begge to så det er dejligt. Den eneste ulempe ved lejligheden er at værelset og derved også terrassen ligger helt oppe i tr ...