Before I Leave...

We leave for Nicaragua tomorrow for 10 days!  So, before I go, I wanted to send out a little update.  First, I want to say thank you to all who are reading this blog.  I am so grateful for your love, for your prayers, and for your support!

Ok...so a little bit about life lately...I am getting more settled in and content to be here, even through the ups and downs of the days.  My classes can wear me down a bit sometimes, but they are so interesting and engaging.  I have learned SO much about Latin America already in the classroom and out.  There was/is so much that I just never learned, especially about all of the revolutions and U.S./Latin American interactions.  The movies we have watched have impacted me deeply.  Some of the movies we've watched are The Mission, The Motorcycle Diaries, Under Fire, The Official Story, and a really good Costa Rican film called A ojos cerrados.  My Spanish speaking gets better the more I am here and I can apply what I learn in the classroom to everyday life.  My host dad loves to teach me new words and phrases all the time.  And, he makes sure I understand.  I'm pretty sure once he asked me something like, "Do you actually understand what I'm saying or are you just giving me bs?"  Of course that's a rough translation ;)  Mas o menos.  My favorite "dicho" or saying that he taught me is "Los errores dejan chicharrones", which translates sort of to "Mistakes leave their mark" meaning that we learn from our mistakes.  Some good wisdom, eh?  I love being here.  I love the people.  I love the pura vida :) 

Speaking of some of the people I love getting to hang out with here...  

Rachel and I in San Jose.  We took this picture for my sister Heather because of her (and my) love of swinging!

 

 A good friend of mine from Wheaton, Rachel is here for this whole year working specifically in preparation of a big Latin American theological conference coming up this spring.  I love going over to her house here with the wonderful family she's living with this year.  For the past two Saturdays, I've gone to a really challenging, loving, welcoming small house church that meets at their house, called the Casa Adobe. 

Here we are bathing the granddaughter/niece of the family- little Sasha.  What a cutie :)

 

Last night, we went got some cheese corn tortillas in a very Latin American- feeling market in Heredia. 

What a gift to already have such a good friend here in Costa Rica :)

Another really fun thing we did recently was go to a jazz club in Escazu!  They played Cuban salsa music.  Wow, those Latin American men sure know how to dance!  I loved watching them shake their hips as much as the women did sometimes haha.  Maybe I'll learn how to salsa and tango dance like that.  Then, I can show everyone up at Zumba in the spring :)  Here's the band:

 

This past Sunday, I went an amazing and refreshing little hike up around campus.  It wasn't a very long one, but I loved the view.  Being out in God's glorious nature- what a gift in so many ways!  

This is on our way, walking through the nearby neighborhoods.  Aren't these trees just AMAZING?!

An always cool jumping shot on the "summit" :)

Our intense band picture through the grass.  We had a lot of fun together as you can see.

And now a little non-photo update about my internship.  We've had a really hard time getting it started up.  Trying to get an internship- formal or informal- is just hard at a health clinic, especially one in another country!  We've had a lot of communication issues and going back and forth.  But, praise God, this past Monday everything got settled and I started!  It was definitely worth the wait, or to add in a little Spanish, vale la pena :)  I'm going to intern at Clinica Biblica in Heredia every Monday for about 6 hours.  My supervisor is a really sweet, older nurse named Flory Visquez Picado.  I like her a lot.  She's very spunky and lively.  She's really excited to teach me A LOT.  Her learning goals for me were extensive, but I'm excited about it.  I'm going to be learning a ton of medical terminology in Spanish as well general pharmacology and epidemiology words.  I'll get to practice taking vital signs and an EKG even!  I look forward to a lot of interactions with the patients.  She is going to teach me so much, about nursing care and just about life and caring for people.  What an amazing opportunity.  I thank God that it finally got all worked out and that it is so great.  I'll be writing more and hopefully putting pictures up later.

And now we're off to Nicaragua to see, do, hear, and experience a lot of stuff!  I won't have internet really, so I won't be updating for until I get back.  I'm sure I'll have a lot to say :)  This is a pretty long post, huh?  I just get going and don't stop, especially when I'm adding pictures.  One last picture of a beautiful rainbow I saw one day after a storm.  Rainbows just radiate the faithfulness of God!